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CNET Update

Hoopla over Elon Musk's Hyperloop

The CEO of SpaceX pushes for a high-speed tube transport, Samsung lowers the price of curved OLED TVs, and Microsoft reverses its stance on the Xbox One's Kinect.

2:55 / 14 August 2013

Transcript

Forget flying cars.
The Hoopla now is about the Hyperloop.
I'm Bridget Carey, and this is your CNET update.
Give it about 10 to 15 years and we could be traveling between cities at super high speeds in clear tubes.
At least that's the concept being paged by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
He and his team released a 57-page outline of the proposed Hyperloop system, which are
shotgun-like tubes that use electromagnetic energy to accelerate pods of passengers up to 800 miles per hour.
Passengers would get from San Francisco to L.A. in 30 minutes; whereas, normally, it takes about 5 and a half hours or so to drive by car.
If you're thinking about the intro to Futurama, well, it's not exactly like that.
People would be sitting down and the G forces felt will be similar to riding in an airplane, but it's not subject to turbulence.
This is just
a proof of concept being shared because Musk says he has to focus his resources on Tesla and SpaceX, but the entrepreneur shared this report in the hopes that someone would be encouraged to take on the project.
So how much could it cost to build?
Musk says $6 billion to connect L.A. and San Francisco, which is 10 times less than the cost of the proposed California high-speed rail project.
Facebook updated its mobile website and apps with new tricks.
You can make restaurant
reservations and look up TV show listings on some brand pages.
Facebook is busy trying all sorts of things to keep you on the app.
It just bought a company that does speech-to-speech translation.
So, give it a few months and maybe we'll just talk to our phones to post a status update and listen to comments.
If you wish your television had a little more curve, Samsung officially unveiled its 55-inch Curved OLED TV.
It will sell in the US for $9000.
That price is gonna sting LG because
it began selling its Curved OLED for 15 grand.
You've seen OLED displays in Samsung smartphones, but as for the Curved, they say it's supposed to make for more immersive viewing experience, or maybe it's just something cool to show off to your friends.
And oddly enough, neither company is selling a non-Curved OLED TV in the US.
If you want the Xbox One, but you don't care for the Kinect, Microsoft is reversing its stands and now it says the new game system will not require the Kinect to be attached.
The Kinect will still come included in the box.
There were some pushback from people who didn't like the idea of a camera and microphone sensor always being connected into your living room and some just didn't care to use the Kinect, but keep in mind, the Kinect can always just be turned off if it weirds you out.
That's your tech news update, and you can read up on more details at CNET.com/update.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.

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